Welcome to a bonus episode of Conversations with Coleman.

We release full episodes every Monday, but today we're releasing a mini episode because I had

Janaya Thomas on for a shorter than usual discussion.

Janaya was the black media director for Trump's 2024 campaign, and she's previously

worked for the Republican National Committee, as well as the campaign for Senator Tim Scott.

In this episode, we touched everything from Charlie Kirk's assassination and his allegedly

racist comments about black women's brains that weren't exactly what they seemed, to Trump's

deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. If you like little bonus episodes like this one,

let us know, and maybe we'll do more.

And of course, we will be back with a full-length episode on Monday. So without further ado,

Janaya Thomas.

Okay, Janaya, thanks so much for coming on my show.

Yeah, thank you for having me.

So before we discuss some of the news of the past few weeks, I want to get a sense of who you are.

Where did you grow up?

And what is your story?

How did you come to be doing the work that you're doing now?

So I was born in Virginia.

I lived there until I was about eight years

old and I grew up in South Carolina right outside of Charlotte, Fort Mill in South Carolina, so it's, you know, one of the suburbs. But I mean, as, you know, most people know, South Carolina is a very red state. So when I was in college, I interned at a law firm, and they worked with the state party. and like that, that's how it became, you know, more affiliated with the political world.

But for me, it was always more so about the communications, journalism aspect of it that made

it more interesting to me.

...